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In Win 805 Aluminium and Glass Mid-Tower Chassis Review

Introduction

In Win, the modern masters of chassis design, are back once again. Today we’ll be taking a look at the In Win 805, a slightly more accessible product for the masses that takes many of the style points of the premium ranges that In Win offer. We’ve been blown away by their more creative products such as the S-Frame, H-Frame, H-Tower, D-Frame, Tao and many more, but it is nice to see these wonder-chassis filtering down into a more consumer friendly package, both in terms of price and ergonomics.

The 805 is designed to impress, with an aluminum frame which features LED highlighting, as well as glass panels on the left, front and right sides, giving you a great look at the chassis interior, perfect for showing off your build. There are three colours available, which colour coordinate the front I/O panel with the LED In Win logo on the side of the chassis.

No stranger to innovation, the chassis also features the new USB3.1 Type-C connector.

“805 is equipped with one all-new reversible USB3.1 TYPE-C port for ultimate data speed transfers up to 10Gb/s which is twice as fast USB 3.0*. This feature saves valuable transfer time and also the USB3.1 TYPE-C is easily accessible at both ends. * The actual data transfer speeds will be determined by your motherboard specification.“

Water cooling or air cooling, the 805 has got you covered here too. There’s a single 120mm exhaust fan included, but you’ll find room for two 120mm fans in the base, as well as two 120/140mm fans in the front. This also means you can fit a radiator in the front and back of the chassis, allowing you to unlock more performance and cooling for your hardware of choice.

First impression of this chassis are extremely positive, with a full-size side-panel cut from tempered glass that looks significantly better than any plastic panel ever would. The panel is held on by four aluminium thumb screws and mounted on rubber coated pegs to protect it.

The right side panel is the same, giving a great view of the interior and behind the motherboard. Keep in mind, this does mean that you’ll want to take extra care with your cable routing, as it’ll all be on show, and even more so if you’ve got lighting in your build.

the front panel is tempered glass too, showing off the metal work detail behind it, although because of this metal behind it, it’s also a lot more mirror like and harder to capture with my camera, but we’ll see it better from the interior.

The brushed aluminium panel at the top houses the USB 2.0 ports, HD audio jacks, a single USB 3.0 and a USB 3.1 Type-C connector. There’s also a pair of indicator LEDs and the power button here.

The In Win logo is behind the glass, not printed on it, a nice yet rather subtle touch.

Things look pretty standard around the back, with a large fan grille at the top for the rear 120mm fan, eight expansion slots with reusable covers and the PSU cut-out.

The top panel is a single piece of black brushed aluminium.

On the base, we’ve got two full-width plastic feet with rubber grips, these provide a nice stand but also improved ground clearance for the bottom dust filter.

This dust filter provides clean passive airflow, but also covers the mounts for two optional 120mm fans.

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Interior

With the side panel removed, you can clearly see that the chassis has the same powder black finish as much of the exterior, giving it a clean and uniform appearance. The backplate is cut with all kinds of holes for cable pass through, CPU-cooler mounting and more.

Here you can better see that offset hexagon pattern that lurks on the front radiator/fan mount panel, just behind the glass work of the chassis. This doesn’t look like much, but it’ll look stunning from the front if you mount LED fans here.

I the base, you’ve got a pair of 3.5″ hard drive bays, with tool-free trays and even an extra 2.5″ drive mount on the top of it. This whole bay can be completely removed should you not need it, but it can also be raised higher in the chassis, giving you great flexibility over your storage and cooling support.

The PSU must be mounted with the fan facing upwards in this chassis, as can be seen detailed on the removable sticker in the base of the chassis. What I do like, while it serves as nothing more than an aesthetics thing, is the plate above the PSU area, it just helps visually separate the areas without being invasive.

The rear 120mm fan is fitted with white LEDs, which should add a little colour to the interior and be nice and visible through the glass panels.

There are all kinds of cool stuff going on back here, with lots of well-placed cable pass through points, as well as three 2.5″ drive mounts!

There drive mounts can be removed a single thumb screw, allowing you to fit the drives and quickly reinstall the bracket.

With three of them, there are plenty of mounts to use even if you completely removed the front hard drive bays to make room for additional hardware or mods.

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Complete System

The complete build took about twenty minutes to complete, that’s pretty darn quick for any system build, but the In Win 805 is just so easy to work with and I never ran into any issues. OK, I must admit that the cable routing is pretty decent, but I could have done a better job with the right cables, that being said, the be quiet! Dark Power Pro is a lovely match for the matte black and glass finishes of this chassis.

I left the bottom bays in place and used a little of the room here for excess cable storage. If you wanted to, there are stick-on cable clips included in the box and you could route cables around the back to remove the excess, it’ll be time-consuming, but the visual payoff will be worth it. Our Crucial BX100 drive mounted on the front 2.5″ bay easily enough too and it’s a lovely spot for showing off your new SSD.

I cheekily used one of the cut-outs on the 2.5″ bay at the back as cable pass-through, which is fine, but there are other spots for this a little further along should you need them.

There’s a huge amount of clearance for our graphics card, despite the fact we’re using a massive Sapphire 270X Tri-X Toxic. There’s more than enough room in the front for a good depth radiator too, so you shouldn’t have any issues getting some high-end hardware installed here.

Now for the fun stuff, we’ve got all the panels back in place and powered up the system. Immediately you’ll notice that side lights up with the In Win logo behind the glass. I must admit that this looks absolutely stunning, it’s a far cry from the usual brand name on a sticker we often see on chassis’

The tempered glass does have a tint to it, but as soon as you power up any internal LED lighting, they shine through beautifully, as you can see from our graphics card, motherboard and the rear 120mm fan.

This is a great chassis for showing off your hardware and if you put a little care into planning your lighting scheme and colour coordination, it’ll pay off in a big way.

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Final Thoughts

Pricing

The In Win 805 isn’t especially cheap, but when you consider the extravagant prices of some of the other In Win models, as well as factoring in that you’re buying a chassis that features premium materials such as aluminium and a lot of beautifully finished tempered glass, it’s price is very good value for money. The 805 can be found at Overclockers UK for just £129.95.

Overview

In Win took the PC market by storm a few years ago as they switched from making everyday chassis’ to some truly game changing products. Much like VW dropping out of F1 to build the Veyron, In Win set their targets very high and created some truly unique products. Of course, these crazy products also came with price tags as high as In Win’s ambition, but over time, the ideas have been working their way down to more consumer-friendly products with more consumer friendly prices; the In Win 805 is the perfect example of this.

In terms of specifications, this is a mid-tower, with support for a reasonable amount of storage, some decent water cooling, an ATX PSU and all that other normal stuff you would get in a mid-tower. The big difference is the design, with three full panels of glass giving you an uncompromising view of the chassis interior and a super sleek and clean finish, especially when you add in the aluminium highlights and that funky LED-lit side panel In Win logo. The 805 blends just the right amount of practicality without compromising on design, but even better, In Win have done it without a huge price premium compared to similar specification premium mid-towers from rival brands.

Build quality is obviously very high, the design is superb, it’s very easy to work with and install your hardware and that’s really all there is to it. The 805 ticks all the right boxes and it’ll be just as well suited to sitting next to your desk at home as it would be on display at an event.

Pros

Flawless build quality

Glass front and side panels

Great for showing off your hardware

Hexagon pattern front panel

Water cooling support

LED In Win Logo

USB 3.1 Type-C

Four 2.5″ drive mounts

Movable 3.5″ drive mounts

Cable routing

Cons

None

“The In Win 805 is one of the coolest looking and best-made mid-tower chassis we’ve ever seen. If you’re looking for something to show off your hardware, that’s still a great day-to-day chassis, you’ll want this one right at the top of your shopping list.”